Voices

This fall, election season has taken front and center in our lives, mailboxes, text messages and robocalls.

But in the Lewis household, we are experiencing a different kind of election season — one for our child. The question is, where will she “elect” to attend college (and, which college will “elect” her to become a member of its student community?) Our daughter is in the midst of the college application process. She even considered dressing up as a college application for Halloween, because it was “the scariest thing I can think of!”

Read More

We made it through our first Days of Awe in a new location, and I am awed that membership “rose” to the occasion in so many ways. Appropriately, the congregation welcomed a Jewish student leader from Rose Hulman Institute of Technology named Noah who attended and participated in the events.

Justin raised a voice during Rosh Hashanah that was even more poignant than guest Dan Davis’s shofar calls. He said that all are needed to share in congregational volunteering. I am paraphrasing, but the image Justin invoked for me was that each of us is holding up our new sukkah. We are in a (perhaps) temporary home, but it is our community that sustains us. Justin, like Judaism’s greatest prophet Moses — or any of us mere mortals — cannot do it alone.

Read More

As I finish this column, we are almost halfway through the period of the Omer, on day 22 of 49 days (we count the Omer during the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot.)

It is customary to study Pirke Avot (Portions of our Fathers), which is a book contained in the Mishneh, part of Jewish oral tradition, during this period.

One of my favorite sayings from the book–also lyrics from a song I learned while a camper at URJ Greene Family Camp in Bruceville, Texas, many years ago–is a quote from Rabbi Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And, if not now, when?” (Avot 1:14).

Read More